Her comments come after a rise in the number of children under 15 being injured on the job

Photograph by: JONATHAN HAYWARD
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark says she doesn't believe government should return to the policy of requiring permits for children under 15 to work, despite a recent rise in payout claims to children injured on the job.

Clark, speaking to The Vancouver Sun's editorial board on Friday, said she believes parents are better suited than bureaucrats to make decisions about the welfare of their children.

But the premier said the government should act to make sure every child under 15 who is working has parental permission to do so. She was reacting to a story in The Sun that indicated there have been 179 under-15 children injured on the job since the B.C. Liberal government changed child labour laws in 2003.

The changes replaced the permit requirement with a letter of permission from parents giving consent. A study produced by First Call B.C., a coalition of children and youth advocate organizations showed that while 60 per cent of children surveyed started working at 14 or younger, only 24 per cent reported having parental consent.

Clark said she was troubled by those statistics, but not convinced the law should be reversed.

"When you have a system in place we should absolutely make sure it is working. If there are lots of kids working without their parents' consent that is a problem we should look at," she said. "But I wouldn't automatically assume the way to resolve that is to add more bureaucrats and grow government's decision-making."

She also doesn't believe the 2003 change in rules led to the rise in claim payouts, which included compensation for two catastrophic injuries that left two young boys crippled for life. "You can't know that changing the requirement that a bureaucrat approve (a permit) wouldn't have had the same result," she said.

The NDP has promised in its election platform a return to children under 15 who work needing approval from their parents and from the director of employment standards.

Clark said it is not illegal for children to work and still go to school.

"I started working at the family business when I was 12. A lot of people do that in our province. It is something that is legal to do," she said. "I do think that parents make better decisions for their children than government does. The change in that rule would have reflected the government's view at the time that we should recognize that parents can make and should make the best decisions for their children and not assume that government can do better."

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